Lawmakers to Meet on Area Code Problems

California legislators will hold a public hearing today on the state’s area code problems, with a special focus on the phone number conservation efforts underway in the Los Angeles region’s 310 area code. But even though Los Angeles is at the center of area code woes and the hearing is being hosted by local Assemblyman Roderick Wright (D-Los Angeles), the all-day event is being held in the Bay Area city of Milpitas. That has angered Assemblyman Wally Knox (D-Los Angeles), who called the venue “baffling, at best.” Earlier this year, Knox helped push regulators to rescind plans for a controversial “overlay” code in 310. The overlay, 424, was to serve the same geographic region as 310. Phone companies continue to argue that number-saving measures will not forestall the need for a new code to serve 310, and will make their views known to Wright, chairman of the Assembly’s Committee on Utilities and Commerce.